Category: China

It looks like Emperor President Xi has decided to crack down on North Korean defectors before his trip to North Korea this week:

A decade after leaving her family behind to flee North Korea, the defector was overwhelmed with excitement when she spoke to her 22-year-old son on the phone for the first time in May after he too escaped into China.

While speaking to him again on the phone days later, however, she listened in horror as the safe house where her son and four other North Korean escapees were hiding was raided by Chinese authorities.

“I heard voices, someone saying ‘shut up’ in Chinese,” said the woman, who spoke on condition of anonymity to protect her son’s safety. “Then the line was cut off, and I heard later he was caught.”

The woman, now living in South Korea, said she heard rumours her son is being held in a Chinese prison near the North Korean border, but has had no official news of his whereabouts.

At least 30 North Korean escapees have been rounded up in a string of raids across China since mid-April, according to family members and activist groups.

It is not clear whether this is part of a larger crackdown by China, but activists say the raids have disrupted parts of the informal network of brokers, charities, and middlemen who have been dubbed the North Korean “Underground Railroad”.

“The crackdown is severe,” said Y. H. Kim, chairman of the North Korea Refugees Human Rights Association of Korea.

Reuters

You can read more at the link.

Chinese Emperor President Xi has decided to make a visit to the vassal allied state of North Korea this week:

Chinese President Xi Jinping will make a state visit to North Korea this week, the North’s state media reported Monday, marking his first trip to Pyongyang since becoming president.

Xi is scheduled to pay a two-day visit to North Korea from Thursday at the invitation of its leader Kim Jong-un, according to the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).

It will be the first visit by a Chinese leader to its communist neighbor in 14 years. Though Xi visited North Korea in 2008, he was China’s vice president at that time.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but this could be a sign that Kim Jong-un is preparing to agree to another summit with President Trump because Kim has traveled to China before other summits with the U.S. President.

It appears President Xi blinked on this attempt to further crackdown on Hong Kong’s independence. The people of Hong Kong best remain vigilant because I would not be surprised if this comes up again:

Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam delayed indefinitely Saturday a proposed law to allow people to be extradited to mainland China for trial after wide spread anger and large-scale protests in the Asian financial hub.

In one of the most significant climb downs by the government since Hong Kong was returned to Chinese rule in 1997, Lam said the city’s legislature would stop all work on the bill. The next steps would be decided after consultations with various parties, she said.

About 1 million people marched through Hong Kong last Sunday to protest the bill, according to organizers of the march. Street demonstrations throughout the week were met with tear gas and rubber bullets from the police, plunging the city into chaos.

The extradition bill, which will cover Hong Kong residents and foreign and Chinese nationals living or travelling in the city, has many concerned it may threaten the rule of law that underpins Hong Kong’s international financial status.

Korea Times

HongKongers write on social media re the police using force ag/citizens standing up to China. Some are writing it in Korean to appeal to South Korea. But the #Moon administration & the so-called "democracy activists" who are in power now are eerily silent.https://t.co/nPFm8iHHdo

— Tara O (@DrTaraO) June 14, 2019

I'm going to take a wild guess and say the People's Daily didn't look like this. https://t.co/TqtILuNsyx

— Erik Slavin (@eslavin_stripes) June 10, 2019

As it turns out Emperor President Xi will not visit South Korea on this way to Japan for the G20 summit:

Chinese President Xi Jinping won’t visit South Korea on the occasion of the upcoming G-20 summit in Japan, a government official here said Friday.
“President Xi is not coming to South Korea” just before or after his trip to Osaka for the June 28-29 G-20 session, according to the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The confirmation came amid multiple news reports here that Xi is expected to travel to South Korea on his way to Osaka or after travelling there.
A Cheong Wa Dae official indicated that President Moon Jae-in instead has a plan to sit down with Xi on the sidelines of the G-20.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

If there should be massive protests against any world leader visiting South Korea, President Xi should be it. China is the country that most recently invaded and destroyed the country, not the Japanese and China continues to be the lifeline that supports North Korea, a country that is committed to the destruction of the ROK:

Chinese President Xi Jinping is rumored to be visiting Seoul this month for a summit with President Moon Jae-in. 

The JoongAng Ilbo, citing an unnamed diplomatic source, reported Thursday that Xi will visit Seoul to meet Moon before going to Osaka, Japan, in late June to participate in the G20 meeting, scheduled for two days from June 28.

Cheong Wa Dae and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said “nothing has been decided” on Xi’s possible trip to Seoul. They did however, say Seoul and Beijing have been working closely to realize his visit. 

“The Chinese government is known to be preparing a schedule for Xi’s visit to South Korea on the last week of this month before he participates in the G20 summit,” the newspaper quoted an unnamed diplomatic source as saying.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but another reason Koreans should be protesting Xi is that China continues to be the home of a modern day comfort women industry and yet the South Korean left will only protest Imperial Japanese comfort women polices from 75 years ago.

You throw in the Chinese fishing boats encroaching on ROK territory and murdering ROK Coast Guard personnel and the Chinese government sponsored assault on Korean citizens in Seoul ten years ago, there are plenty of reasons that Koreans should be unhappy with President Xi.

However, it is likely little if any protests will occur because China is a hard target to protest against because they will retaliate compared to the easy target that is Japan.

In the three decades since the June 4th Tiananmen Massacre, there have been dozens of excellent articles commemorating the event. Here are four of my favorites (thread). https://t.co/Y8kfT1mcG3

— Isaac Stone Fish (@isaacstonefish) June 4, 2019

The Chinese are busy making threats again in regards to their claims over Taiwan and almost the entire South China Sea:

China’s defense minister warned Sunday that its military will “resolutely take action” to defend Beijing’s claims over self-ruled Taiwan and disputed South China Sea waters.
Speaking at an annual security conference in Singapore, Gen. Wei Fenghe did not direct the threat at the U.S. but loaded his address with criticism of activities by Washington, including support for Taiwan and leading so-called freedom of navigation operations in the strategic waterways that China virtually claims as its own.
Wei said the People’s Liberation Army would not “yield a single inch of the country’s sacred land.”

China’s ruling Communist Party maintains that Taiwan is part of China, and has used increasingly aggressive rhetoric toward the democratic island, which split from the mainland amid a civil war 70 years ago. It opposes Taiwan’s independence and formally says it seeks a “peaceful reunification” while refusing to rule out the use of force if necessary to achieve that goal.
“The PLA has no intention to cause anybody trouble but it is not afraid to face up to troubles. Should anybody risk crossing the bottom line, the PLA will resolutely take action and defeat all enemies,” Wei said.

Associated Press

You can read more at the link.

As Japan found out in 2010, countries depend solely or mostly on China as a source of critical materials at their own peril https://t.co/x68FSuTYv4

— Patrick Cronin (@PMCroninHudson) May 22, 2019